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G20 Conference on Agriculture Research Development

Montpellier, September 12-13, 2011.

Promoting Scientific Partnerships for Food Security

Session 1: Stronger Co-operation and Co-ordination for Agriculture

Research for Development and Food Security1.

Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you on this important subject.

Lloyd Le Page, the CGIAR Consortium CEO, was unable to join us today,

because of a last minute impediment requiring his urgent attention. He

asked me to convey his regrets, and as Chair of the Consortium, I am

happy to take his place in this occasion.

Today, I would like to address 3 key areas key to promoting scientific

partnership through stronger cooperation and coordination for AR4D.

The urgency for more agricultural research.

The food security for our world is in a state of urgency.

Climate change, economic instability, persistently high food prices, and

rapid population growth – all coming at the same time – are amounting to

a perfect storm for our societies and our collective food security.

In the Horn of Africa, for example, we are seeing a food crisis and famine,

caused by multiple factors, including a drought and policies that have

perverse effects on agriculture on a scale that is deeply troubling to all of

us who have devoted our careers to agricultural research for

development.

1 Speaker: Carlos Pérez del Castillo, CGIAR Consortium Board Chair.

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Worldwide, we have seen strong volatility and uncertainty in commodity

markets, since 2008. Ultimately they have led to major price hikes in key

staples, which are having the greatest impacts on those who can least

afford them. It is the poor in developing countries – who already spend

up to 80% of their income on food (compared to about 10% for you and I)

– who are the ones most affected by the rising costs of basic food staples.

As we have seen in recent years, food price hikes and pressures on supply

can trigger major waves of social unrest. In 2008, we saw food riots in

more than 30 countries. That social unrest can create a force that can

potentially jeopardize, even topple, national governments – or destabilize

entire regions.

We are rapidly approaching the 2015 deadline for achieving the

Millennium Development Goals. The first of these regards reducing the

proportion of hungry people by half. While hunger has dropped by about

25% since 1990 – there are still a billion people worldwide facing chronic

hunger. And with the drought, political instability, overall insecurity and

growing famine in the Horn of Africa, we may see those numbers worsen

further.

Why are we starting to lose the battle against hunger against which we

had made such strides in the past?

There are short and long-term causes behind the increase in the numbers

of people that go hungry ever day. One of the primary long-term causes is

the decreased investment in agriculture and in agricultural research for

development. There is broad consensus on this.

Since the Green Revolution in the 1970s, there has been a steady decline

in investments in agriculture. While the investment in agriculture grew

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annually at 1.1% in the period 1975–1990, the rate was only 0.5% during

1991–2007, according to FAO’s data.

The success of the Green Revolution saved millions of lives, but it also

bred complacency and today we face the need for a new revolution in

agriculture.

With declines in agricultural investment have come declines in

productivity and sustainability. Meanwhile, the emergence of other

factors - the energy, economic and financial crises, climate change,

increased urbanization, and further rapid degradation of soils and water -

has deepened the needs of the poorest and increased the challenge of

managing our natural resources sustainably.

In 2009, the FAO´s High Level Experts Forum established that the annual

gap between current and required investment in agriculture in developing

countries is US $67 billion annually. This would require a 50% increase

compared to current funding. And it includes increased funding for

research, among other measures, to boost agriculture productivity.

The G20, along with a myriad of international organizations involved

directly or indirectly in food security, agree: Increased funding for

agricultural research is fundamental.

We know that it is a good financial investment. Even the most

conservative estimates of returns on investment in the CGIAR have shown

rates of return equivalent to at least twice the investment – in some cases

reaching as much as $9 of benefit for each $1 invested.

But that is not the only reason we need more funding for agricultural

research. If we are to improve food security, combat poverty, improve

health and nutrition, all while better managing our natural resources – the

mandate of our Consortium – we must design and implement different

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policies and approaches to research that result in greater farmers

empowerment, for them to face the emerging and multiple challenges I

already mentioned.

The need for stronger co-operation and co-ordination in agricultural

research for development

So along with the urgency for greater funding, we also must urgently build

the mechanisms and strategies for stronger co-operation and co-

ordination in agricultural research for development

For example, the CGIAR Consortium which I have the honour to chair, has

thousands of scientists, who work in partnerships with policymakers,

national agricultural research services, and a wide range of private sector,

academic, and non-profit partners to develop innovations that aim to

improve farm productivity and increased incomes by increasing farmer’s

access to proven interventions.

The main thrust of our strategy includes a coherent set of integrated

research for development activities that produce, for instance, improved

crop varieties that remain highly productive under climate stress, such as

drought, floods, salinity, pest infestations. We also undertake research,

through these partnerships, that results in crop varieties that have a

higher nutritional content and significant health benefits for farmers and

consumers. A third example is the improved water and soil management

practices that increase agricultural productivity and resilience. Another

area of research is related to post harvest losses and means of controlling

them through better storage and processing options that allow more of

what farmers produce to reach markets and thereby boost farmers’

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incomes. Public policies and investments are also the subject of our

research, aiming at, for example improving farmers’ access to better

infrastructures, including access to market, or improved food safety.

The challenge we face is complex indeed. However, progress can occur if

we focus on long-term solutions appropriate for farmers - and if we can

work together with you, and our other public and private partners, to

develop policies that remove barriers impeding the progress to long-term

food security.

Our strategy is to continually increase investments in the longer-term

strategies that we need to develop higher yielding, and more

environmentally resilient and diversified agricultural systems. These are

essential to feed a growing world population whilst minimizing the carbon

and environmental footprint of our production systems.

The CGIAR – partnering and collaborating to enhance impacts

The CGIAR consortium is composed of 15 international agricultural

research centers that operate through a number of research sites in over

120 countries. The reach and strength of that partnership is further

enhanced by the relatively recent creation of extensive global, regional

and national networks of institutions and stakeholders that work with the

CGIAR Consortium within the framework of well defined agricultural

research for development programs. This significantly increases our ability

to create impact on the ground in terms of our four major objectives,

defined in our new strategy: reducing poverty, improving world food

security, ensuring environmental sustainability and improving nutrition

and health. These networks incorporate National Agricultural Research

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Services, regional organizations, rural development specialists, members

of the scientific community, civil society groups, and organizations with

strong links to farmers and innovation systems.

Recently, the CGIAR has embarked on a deep structural reform to better

meet the needs of our partners and end-users. This is allowing us to:

(1) define our research priorities so that new knowledge and technologies

respond to countries’ needs and research outputs are focused on

delivering direct solutions to the world’s food security problems;

(2) integrate different competencies across the 15 centers to create

critical mass and a greater impact on the ground through their collective

action; and

(3) review our partnering approaches to involve the relevant stakeholders

in the best possible way, not only in research, but also in translating

research into innovations and benefits for smallholder agriculture.

Our current CGIAR research programs were developed in consultation

with scientists and partners in all the countries where we work. This

contributed to a strong sense of ownership on the part of all partners, in

the design of the new CGIAR research strategy tailored to meet the

challenges and realities of the coming decades.

This new strategy provides an analytical frame for the new CGIAR research

programs (CRPs). These programs are the main mechanism through which

we conduct our work and collaborate with partners. The 15 CRPs address

seven key areas. These are: agricultural production systems, policies and

markets, commodity improvement, agricultural nutrition and health,

water and soils, forestry and climate change. Priority is given in all these

programs to cross-cutting issues such as gender and capacity

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strengthening to ensure that research and resulting benefits are as

effective and equitable as possible.

This new research portfolio represents an unprecedented level of

collaboration among centers and with their partners. These partners

include a number of institutions in the G20 countries. The portfolio builds

on past achievements, adding value by linking activities, and creating

dynamic synergies among them. They will benefit from the CGIAR's critical

mass of leading researchers and its strong links with national research

programs and other partners, especially farmers.

One of the real innovations in new CGIAR research approach is the focus

on setting common objectives with our partners – linking science to the

needs of people in resource-poor areas. We are also taking the concept of

partnerships and ways to tap comparative advantages to a whole new

scale. One example of particular relevance for us today is the potential of

public/private partnerships to identify and advance positive policy

changes, to fill gaps in access, or to spur innovation within a context of

corporate social responsibility and sustainable use of natural resources.

As I noted in the beginning of my presentation, the investment in

agricultural research is urgent – and will have high returns.

With the participation of more institutions and our approach to research

partnerships through the G20, those returns can be even greater and long-

lasting. What’s more, we know that payoffs in investments also translate

into non-monetary gains that also lead to improved lives: gains in social

cohesion, in human capital, in natural resources, and in physical resources

and technology.

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To conclude, I would like to summarize my answers to the questions we

were asked to address in this session.

Firstly, we definitely coincide with the importance of sustainable food

production and productivity increase and sustainable resource

management in agriculture as the key operational objective of agricultural

research for development concerning food security.

Secondly, I have already highlighted the priorities, imbedded in the CRPs,

that we are pursuing and which we consider essential to achieve global

food security.

Thirdly, I want to stress the importance of establishing partnerships at

national, regional and international levels to produce a greater impact in

the field.

Fourthly, I would like to submit that our 15 CGIAR research programs are

an important mechanism around which better coordination and

cooperation of research efforts can be organized, including among the

G20 agricultural research systems.

Fifthly, some very valuable example of such collaboration and

coordination are already in place in all the CRPs. We would welcome the

opportunity to further strengthen our cooperation with research

institutions from the G20 countries.

Sixthly, pervasive computing and low-cost connectivity are transforming

the ways that science and development are conducted. Innovative use of

Information and Communication technologies and processes make

collaboration more feasible across country and institutional boundaries.

This “democratization” of science is transforming agricultural science,

research and technology into an effective participatory and innovations

system approach.

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I am confident that the G20´s new perspective will have a decisive role in

addressing these questions, and ensuring a more food secure future for

our world. And I assure you that the CGIAR will be one of your strongest

allies to make this happen.

Thank you.